536 Home Nature-Study Course. 



North America," Chapman. " Birds of Village and Field," p. 287. 

 "Story of the Birds," "The Bird Book," p. no. 



Supplementary Reading. — Audubon Educational Leaflets, Nos. 11, 

 12, 14. " Second Book of Birds," Chapters 32 and 33. " Winter Birds," 

 Burroughs. The Boy and Hushwing in " Kindred of the Wild." Second 

 Crops in " Wild Life Near Home." " Familiar Life in Field and Forest," 

 p. 99. Wilderness Ways, p. 59. Wings and Fins, Chapter XIX. Heart 

 of Oak Books, Vol. IV, p. 51. Prairie Dog Village, Irving. 



THE MOUSE. 



Preliminary Work. — A common house mouse may be trapped and kept in a 

 cage in the schoolroom for a day or two for the purpose of observation. The 

 cage should be placed where the children will see it, and five or ten minutes spent 

 in watching the cunning ways of this little creature may be used as a reward of 

 merit for good behavior or accomplishment of school work. The teacher may 

 incidentally tell some of the following facts to increase the interest in mice : Our 

 house mice came from ancestors which lived in Asia originally. However, these 

 mice are great travelers and have followed men wherever they have gone all over 

 the world. They came to America on ships with the first explorers and the pilgrim 

 fathers. They now travel back and forth across the oceans in ships of all sorts; 

 they also travel across the continents on trains. Wherever our food is carried they 

 go. The mice which you see in your house one day may be one thousand miles 

 away within a week; they come and go by their own hidden paths and for their 

 own mysterious reasons. Mice are very clever and learn quickly to connect cause 

 and effect. For two years when the editor was empIo3'ed in the Department of 

 Agriculture at Washington a bell rang at noon, which was a signal for all the 

 clerks to open their lunch baskets and partake of the light midday meal. They 

 threw the remains in the waste paper baskets, and the mice in the building soon 

 learned to connect the sound of the bell with a possible meal. We would see 

 nothing of them all the forenoon but within five minutes after the bell rang they 

 would be present everj^where exploring the waste baskets for crumbs. 



LESSON CII. 



HOW TO OBSERVE THE MOUSE. 



• 



Purpose. — To teach how the mouse looks. 



First of all note the color, for this has served the species well, and 

 is one of the means of spreading it all over the world. Mouse-gray is 

 perhaps the most inconspicuous color that there is ; when a mouse is 

 running along the floor the eye hardly takes it in, for- it looks like a 

 flitting shadow and thus escapes observation ; if the mouse were black 

 or white or any other color, it would be more often seen and destroyed. 

 Note the erect cars, the bright black eyes : the legs while not long are 

 adapted for swift motion ; the feet are delicate but are used skillfully as 



